


Aether

by digitaldreams



Series: Digital's Ikesoren Week Drabbles [7]
Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Fluff, IkeSoren Week, IkeSoren Week 2021, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Path of Radiance, Pre-Radiant Dawn, not beta read we die like greil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28688574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitaldreams/pseuds/digitaldreams
Summary: The tides of change were as merciless as they were beautiful.
Relationships: Ike/Senerio | Soren
Series: Digital's Ikesoren Week Drabbles [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2093163
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20
Collections: IkeSoren Week 2021





	Aether

War brought with it many changes, and Ike and Soren were more than familiar with the evolution their lives had undergone. 

Neither one of them was truly sure when the shift had taken place. At some point along the way through the Mad King’s War, they had both begun to change. Ike was no longer simply a mercenary training for something greater; he was the commander of an army. Soren’s previous status as a simple mage had been elevated into the tactician for a growing resistance force. Evolution had come slowly as one would have expected, but there were far more ways that they were altered than the surface observations. 

Soren’s habits of staying up late remained the same as ever, but Ike’s response began to change. He was the only one who could ever manage to drag Soren off to bed to actually get some rest for once. Soren wasn’t the only one prone to pushing himself too far though, and when Ike slipped into bad habits, Soren was the one who pulled him out of it. They had found a mutual waltz of respect and gentle care, though neither one of them had a word for it quite yet. 

Ike spent a lot of time thinking on his own after he learned the truth of Soren’s heritage. The details regarding Soren being Branded weighed heavily on his mind, and a protective instinct unlike anything he had ever experienced rose in his chest when he thought about it. He wanted to ensure that no atrocities like the ones that Soren had previously described were ever repeated. That was what friends did for one another, after all. 

It was late one night when Ike realized that he loved Soren. The war had finally drawn to a close, and the Crimean people were uniting under the shared banner of their newly-crowned queen. The darkness and silence had come in to rest around him and Soren both. Even in the Crimean palace, a building more than large enough for them both to have their own space, they remained ever at one another’s sides, a lingering effect of the war they had just managed to escape. 

Ike remembered sitting up in his bed and glancing across the room to where Soren rested on his own mattress. It had been quite the trial forcing Soren to sleep, but Ike had managed it somehow. Soren had been desperate to get them out of the court of Crimea’s nobles as soon as possible, but Ike knew that he was pushing himself too far in his desperation. At least Soren was catching some sleep. That was what mattered most. 

The blue-haired mercenary let out a small sigh, and a fond smile appeared on his face. The war had brought him many things, but he hadn’t expected love to be one of them. He watched Soren for a few moments longer, examining every small detail as the frail mage’s chest rose and fell with the passing seconds, before returning to his previous position stretched out on his bed. He didn’t know what he was going to do about this new discovery, but he was sure that he would have more than enough time to think about it. 

Ike realized soon afterwards that Soren knew many things. It wasn’t as if Ike was being particularly obvious about his emotions; Ike had always been a naturally stoic person, and his expression was passive and stony at best on most days, especially given their presence in the Crimean court. Still, Soren was perceptive and noticed every small detail regardless of how unimportant it seemed at a first glance. It was his job as the strategist of the Greil Mercenaries. He had commanded an army to victory, so it was only natural that he recognized everything that he deemed to be vital. 

Soren chose not to say anything on the matter though. Instead, the silence spoke for them, and all the two needed to do was sit in the same room and enjoy the company of the other. They knew what this was regardless of if they phrased it or not. The sensation filled Ike with a strange feeling of warmth that put every worry that had ever plagued his mind to rest immediately. 

Eight months had passed since the Crimean restoration effort began before Ike finally said it out loud. Soren had been writing something from his place at the desk in the corner of the room, and Ike had busied himself with sharpening a simple blade as a way of passing the moments. It made their time at court a bit less painful, and Ike was more than willing to embrace it. 

“I love you.”

The three words had come surprisingly easily, and Soren had looked up from his writing to turn and face Ike. His lips were set in a firm line, but his eyes betrayed him and showed a soft sense of vulnerability that had been reserved only for Ike as long as either one of them could remember. 

Soren made his way over to Ike’s side silently, and he allowed his commander to wrap an arm around his shoulders. The two stayed like that for a long time, relishing in the presence of the other. Nothing else in the world for those precious moments. The nobles of Crimea that had been causing so many problems for them were nothing when compared to the perfection of those whispered words. 

When they left the room behind, they would be forced back into the boxes that they had evolved into during the war: commander and tactician. Times had changed, and so had their feelings, but the world was not allowed to know the truth. They had adapted the way that they had been forced to, but beauty had been found even among the opposition and learned brutality that came with war. For a few stolen seconds though, the time was theirs, and they loved each other with everything they had. 

Things had changed, but none of that seemed to matter when compared to the love they shared. 

**Author's Note:**

> And so, IkeSoren Week draws to a close! 
> 
> I have to admit that this piece was the hardest one for me to get started on. I didn't know where I was going to be headed with it, but as soon as I got the idea of going all fluffy with a love confession, it just wrote itself. It's just nice and cute, and sometimes, that's all you need. 
> 
> This chapter's name has got to be the most obvious of the bunch. Aether is the mastery skill of Ike's classes in both Path of Radiance (Lord) and Radiant Dawn (Vanguard). In ancient science, aether was considered to be the fifth element that lived where the other four did not, and in this case, it thrives in the silence and change between Ike and Soren. It's metaphorical, but sometimes, metaphors are fun. Sue me. 
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing my pieces for this event, and I'm hoping that you all enjoyed reading them too. If you want more content of these two from me, I've written a few other drabbles about them on my page (along with some other Tellius content). If you want something to look forward to, I update my Radiant Dawn fanmade support conversations daily, and new content will be coming out until the end of 2021. I'm also considering doing a belated entry into Tellius Week (a whole six months late), so there's a chance that you'll get little drabbles for that over the next two weeks or so. 
> 
> Regardless of if you choose to investigate my other work though, I hope you enjoyed! Hell yeah to the best ship in Tellius! Have a nice day, everyone!
> 
> -Digital


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